[Yemaen Post] People and popular committees in Yemen's southern Abyan province locked away 15 Al-Qaeda cut-throats while planning to carry out terrorist and destructive attacks in Lawder city, Saba reported on Thursday.Citing a security source in the city, the official news agency said that the arrests took place after the suspects put a bomb inside the car of member of one of the popular committees to blow up the hospital where the car was parked.
| Goodness -- that's not very nice at all. |
| Fifteen adults locked in a private Yemeni prison? It's enough to make one yearn for the hospitable mustache waxes and Number Seven truncheons of a Turkish prison. |
When the popular uprising started in Yemen six months ago, Al-Qaeda declared Abyan as an Islamic emirate retaking several cities and waging war against the army.
But the government responded quickly, as local skeptics said that there is no Al-Qaeda in the south and what is happening in Abyan remained a game amid the escalating protests seeking the ouster of the regime.
Meantime, the overall situation in Yemen has raised concerns that Al-Qaeda can exploit the political vacuum and expand its presence and operations in the country and pose threats to Yemen's neighbors and friends.